How do I smooth out violins?


I have a decent system (bit of a mixed bag) but know that I can achieve a smoother, more integrated, and more relaxed massed violin sound. I listen to a ton of orchestral music and notice that massed violins in their upper registers (1500-3500 Hz) often jump out from the mix and sound a bit harsh, unlike what one hears live. Right now, I have the following:

Spendor SP1/2E
McCormick DNA-125 (original)
NAD 1600 (pre/tuner)
Marantz CD3000
Audioquest Sidewinder ICs
Audioquest Type 4

Would a tube pre help (maybe a AA M3A)? I'm thinking that the NAD may be the culprit. Any advice from those of you who have quested for "real" violin sound is very much appreciated.
bojack

Showing 1 response by geeqner

Depending on your speakers - it may be something as simple as playing with the placement and alignment of your speakers.

At the frequencies in the Violin range, human ears are pretty sensitive to reflected signals. Also, those frequencies "bounce" off of typical common wall surfaces pretty effectively. Furthermore, as some have stated - your speakers (tweaters in particular) may become more "beamy" at the higher frequencies (the way that various frequencies produced by your speakers "spread-out" within your room changes as the primary frequency content of the music shifts from predominantly bass to predominantly treble, and the spread of the tweaters may become narrower when the music shifts to mostly treble [as in massed violins] which would tend to focus more of the sound intensity to wherever the tweaters are aimed.

If your speakers are pointed directly at your ears (height-wise) and/or if they are pointed square or nearly so at any hard walls within your room - you may be hearing the tweaters TOO "directly" and/or reflections interacting with the original signal from the speaker. Changing the "toe-in" and/or tilting the speakers a few degrees may help to reduce this phenomenon (and it costs you NOTHING to try it!) The idea is to align the tweaters so that they are aimed "just a little" off from your listening location and at enough of an angle so that reflections do not bounce in direct opposition or parallel to the source waves from the tweater(s).

Acoustical treatments to the room can also be effective - usually best to have some hardish surfaces in the front part of the room / soft absorbing stuff in the listening area and diffusion behind the speakers.

REMEMBER:  Whether you like it or not - Your listening room accounts for about 30% of the Perceived Acoustic Performance of your system.